LIGHT LUNCH, TWO WAYS

Posted in Breakfast & Brunch, Small Dishes, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

Today I share a couple of recipes that have my name written all over. They are low in carbs, full of flavor and… loaded with eggs! I am after all, a very enthusiastic egg-cheerleader. I probably enjoy them for lunch in some version (scrambled, omelette, over-easy) several times per week. Without further ado, here they are…

Let’s start with the Low-Fat Quiche, courtesy of Helen Fletcher

SIMPLE LOW-FAT QUICHE
(slightly modified from Helen Fletcher’s Pastries like a Pro)

1 cup low-fat yogurt
½ cup cottage cheese
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
4 cups broccoli, trimmed closely and cut
½ cup roasted red peppers
6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated (170 grams)
½ cup parmesan cheese, grated (58 grams)
½ teaspoon dry mustard
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Heat the oven to 350F. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with non-stick baking spray. Reserve.

Place the yogurt and cottage cheese in the bowl of a processor. Process until smooth, scraping down as necessary. Add the eggs, cornstarch, salt and pepper. Process until smooth, it will be a very loose mixture. Add the mustard and cayenne pepper and give it a final processing.

Place the broccoli in the microwave with just a spray of water. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes at 80% power. Dry the broccoli well, transfer to a bowl and add the red pepper. Add the yogurt mixture, them the cheeses and mix it all well. Pour into the pie pan and bake for about 40 minutes. It should be set in the center and lightly browned.

Allow it to cool for 15 miutes before slicing. It can be consumed warm or cold.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Make sure to visit Helen’s blog since that post is a full lesson on how to make any kind of savory quiche (low-fat) that you might desire. The fact that it does not need a crust makes it also much lower in carbs, which is something I don’t mind for my lunch.

Moving on, Prosciutto Egg Muffins…

PROSCIUTTO EGG MUFFINS
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

3 eggs
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
6 slices proscuitto
salt to taste

Heat oven to 350℉. Line a muffin tray with paper liner or spray with olive oil. If using a silicone tray, no need to do that.

In a medium mixing bowl, add in the eggs and beat well. Next add in the cheese, spices and salt. Whisk vigorously until combined. Cover the slots of the muffin tray with the prosciutto slices. You should have enough for 6 egg muffins. Pour the mixture into the slots. Bake for 20 minutes or until set and starting to get golden on top.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Even though I make this type of food for myself, the husband approved them both and we ended up sharing them. Light and delicious, leftovers can be warmed in the microwave at low power for a minute and the a brief heating in a 350F oven for perfect texture. This is the perfect opportunity to put this amazing pan to use, by the way. It was featured in my latest In My Kitchen post (click here to read it).

ONE YEAR AGO: Three Adorable Cookies

TWO YEARS AGO: Ube Sourdough, Two Ways

THREE YEARS AGO: Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Cookie Cups

FOUR YEARS AGO: Chicken Poblano Tortilla Soup

FIVE YEARS AGO: Kung Pao Chicken

SIX YEARS AGO: Galette de Rois

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Sous-Vide Overnight Oatmeal

EIGHT YEARS AGO: A Valentine’s Day Opera

NINE YEARS AGO: Incredibly Simple Times Four

TEN YEARS AGO: Walnut-Cranberry Sourdough Bread

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Ottolenghi in Brazil?

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Roasted Winter Vegetables with Miso-Lime Dressing

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: 2012 Fitness Report: P90X2

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Caramelized Bananas

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Roasted Lemon Vinaigrette

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO: Whole Wheat Bread

13Feb2026

BAKING WITH LOVE

Posted in Cake, Cookies by sallybr

Valentine’s Day is just about here! Today I share a few ideas to sweeten up this special weekend… Make sure to visit my cookie blog tomorrow for a series of cookies that celebrate love. And now, let’s get started, shall we?

I open this post with a Vanilla Pound Cake with Hibiscus Glaze

VANILLA POUND CAKE WITH HIBISCUS GLAZE
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

for the cake:
3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter, softened (room temperature)
8 oz Cream Cheese, at room temperature (one regular package)
2 + 1/2 cups (500g) sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla paste or extract
6 Eggs, at room temperature
3 cups (375g) flour

for the glaze:
3 tablespoons hibiscus tea
200g powdered sugar
squeeze of lemon juice

Heat oven to 325F.

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar with hand mixer until light and fluffy. Pound cakes do not contain leavening agent, so make sure to work the butter until fluffy. Add salt and vanilla, beat well.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Gradually mix in the three cups of flour.

Pour into well greased bundt pan. Bake for about 90 minutes, covering with foil if the top gets too brown before a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Wait for 15 minutes before un-molding over a rack. Let the cake cool completely, then make a glaze whisking all the ingredients. Pour the glaze over the cake, decorate with sprinkles, if desired.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe click here

Comments: The Bundt pan I used is this one. Any cake will look good with a simple dusting of powdered sugar, but I decided to go with a light glaze and sprinkles.

CHOCOLATE-COVERED
BROWNIE HEARTS

If your heart is set on chocolate, but you don’t feel like a simple tray of brownies, here is a very cute idea… Bake the brownies in a heart-shape silicone mold, then use the same mold to coat each piece in chocolate (I went with compound chocolate dyed red). I used these molds to bake and coat the brownies. And my favorite recipe for the little cakes (check here).

When you bake the brownies, the bottom side, that touches the mold, will be super flat. You can flip them when you coat and place the non-flat side touching the chocolate. That will end up smooth, so both sides of your little cakes will be nice and flat.

So the process goes like this: bake the brownies, cool them completely in the mold. Freeze for 10 minutes to make sure the brownie will be nice and firm. Remove cakes. Wash the mold, dry well. Melt compound chocolate in the color of your choice, add a layer to the bottom of the mold and immediately insert the cake back. Push gently all the way down. Make sure you see the chocolate coming up a bit around the edges, no need to come all the way to the top. Freeze for 15 minutes. Un-mold, and decorate.

Once they are coated, you can pipe a drizzle of melted chocolate and add sprinkles.

CHOCOLATE-COVERED OREOS

No need for recipe, just a little festive decoration, made with Royal icing and sanding sugar. Leftover melted chocolate was used to form little hearts using this mold.

VALENTINE’S SQUARE CAKE

I cannot share the recipe, as it is copyrighted. Published as Sunny Sprinkle Layer Cake, it is in a great book by Molly Gilbert called Sheet Pan Sweets. I baked it in a half-sheet pan, then cut 4 squares to make the layers, used a simple American Buttercream to frost it. It was not easy to frost smoothly a square cake, but oh, well. What does not kill you, makes you stronger.

I wish you a wonderful weekend, no matter where you stand on the festivities of February 14th!

ONE YEAR AGO: Baking with the Heart

TWO YEARS AGO: Baking with the Heart

THREE YEARS AGO: Roasted Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Quinoa

FOUR YEARS AGO: A Savory Phyllo Pie

FIVE YEARS AGO: Nut-Free Lady Grey Macarons

SIX YEARS AGO: Mini-Heart Cakes for your Valentine

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Blue Moon Milk

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Slow-Cooked Chicken Meatballs

NINE YEARS AGO: Zesty Flourless Chocolate Cake

TEN YEARS AGO: Maple Pumpkin Pecan Snacking Cake

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Sweet Fifteen!

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Sesame and Flaxseed Sourdough

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Green Beans with Miso and Almonds

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Saturday Morning Scones

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO: White Bread

11Feb2026

MY MOST VERSATILE COOKIE DOUGH

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

I have used this simple recipe in countless ways and it simply never disappoints me. Because it has no leavening agent, it holds its shape either as a cutout or as a stamped cookie. You can also use it for thumbprint cookies. You can paint it, you can stencil it. And of course, you can treat it as a regular sugar cookie and decorate it with Royal icing. I will give you the basic formula and a few variations, but they will all perform exactly the same way.

HAZELNUT COOKIE DOUGH
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

226 g butter
150g total sugar (100 + 50 white and brown or reversed, see comments)
30g egg (must weigh)
1 tsp hazelnut emulsion (variations in comments)
¼ tsp vanilla extract
380g all purpose flour
½ tsp salt

Soften butter on low mixer setting. Add sugars and mix on low until butter is incorporated. Add egg, extracts, mix on low. Add flour and salt and mix until dough comes together.

Form disc, wrap in plastic and place in fridge 10 minutes.

Roll out, press stamps or cut. Refrigerate for 90 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes before baking at 350F until done, depends on size and thickness of your cookie.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Let’s talk extracts. I really love the Hazelnut Bakery Emulsion from LorAnn (click here). It has a strong smell but don’t let that scare you, it bakes with a wonderful flavor. Variations: use Pistachio Bakery Emulsion, or Natural Orange, all from LorAnn. As to sugars, you can either use 100g white and 50g brown, or the opposite. Some brown sugar is important, if you want a slightly crispier cookie, go for higher amount of white sugar. The cookie will also be obviously lighter, so that might be more appropriate for some designs. Finally, it is very important to weight the egg. I know, if you don’t own a scale, it is a problem but if you add one full egg it will be too much. I rarely need to adjust anything in the dough if I follow this recipe to a T. Having covered the basics, let me show you a few ideas to put this baby to use.

STRAWBERRY JAM COOKIES

I used 100g white sugar and 50g brown for this one. Roll the cookie, cut the shape, make little holes with a toothpick for added cuteness. Press your finger twice to form a little heart shape. Fill with jam (do not add too much). Bake. Decorate with Royal icing once cool. If you don’t want to use the decoration, just make a round shape and fill it with jam.

COCOA POWDER STENCILING

Super fun technique. You will brush a little cocoa powder on the raw cookie using a stencil, then bake. I have also used a cocoa paste made with softened butter, powdered sugar and flour, but managed to lose that recipe. Could not retrieve it, don’t remember where I saw it. Very sorry, but cocoa powder by itself works great (you can see my full blog post about it here).

STAMPED COOKIES

For these cookies, I went with 100g brown sugar and 50g white. I wanted a darker shade to start with. After baking, I painted the design with luster powder, either gold or bronze. The cookie stamp is available here.

ROLLED, MOLDED, PRESSED

Higher proportion of white sugar for all of those. Notice how the impression stays nicely, no matter the technique you choose to work with the dough.

SPRINGERLE MOLDS

You can leave the cookie unpainted, or have some fun with colors. I do like luster powder for this type of decoration, it comes with a natural shine I adore. When I leave the cookies unpainted, I sometimes like to spray a little PME luster pearl, but that is totally optional.

PAINTED COOKIES

Those were tiny little cookies, baked, cooled, and painted with different colors of luster powder + vodka. Also pretty cute if left unpainted. But you know I find it hard to resist the call of color…

I hope you will give this recipe a try, and love it as much as I do.

ONE YEAR AGO: White Chicken, a Cantonese Classic

TWO YEARS AGO: Baking with the Heart

THREE YEARS AGO: Roasted Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Quinoa

FOUR YEARS AGO: A Savory Phyllo Pie

FIVE YEARS AGO: Nut-Free Lady Grey Macarons

SIX YEARS AGO: Mini-Heart Cakes for your Valentine

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Blue Moon Milk

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Slow-Cooked Chicken Meatballs

NINE YEARS AGO: Zesty Flourless Chocolate Cake

TEN YEARS AGO: Maple Pumpkin Pecan Snacking Cake

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Sweet Fifteen!

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Sesame and Flaxseed Sourdough

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Green Beans with Miso and Almonds

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Saturday Morning Scones

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO: White Bread

7Feb2026

VALENTINE’S SOURDOUGH

Posted in Breads by sallybr

You can use any recipe you are fond of, the scoring is not intricate so you can even increase a bit the hydration level if you prefer. You will need parchment paper cut with a heart shape (save the heart and the outside area), and a stencil with little hearts. I used Red Yeast Powder to add color, but air-brushing would also work. I love how the little white heart popped into the design, totally by accident! Serendipity at work…

VALENTINE’S SOURDOUGH
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

450g bread flour
50g whole wheat flour
75g sourdough starter (stiff or 100% hydration)
10g salt
360g water
Thai rice flour (or tapioca flour)
Red Yeast Powder for color (I used this one)

Mix all ingredients in the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer fitted with the dough hook. Knead gently for about 4 minutes (first or second speed maximum).

Transfer dough to a lightly oil bowl and do a bulk fermentation with 4 folds made 45 minutes apart. Before you start the fermentation , remove a very small amount of dough to a small glass container (like those that hold spices), and mark where the level of the dough is with a permanent marker. Keep that at room temperature to monitor fermentation.

After the last folding cycle, keep an eye on the fermentation using the small vial. Ideally you want to let the dough ferment until it is double in size. Depending on the day, temperature of your kitchen, it might take 8 hours or more.

Once bulk fermentation is over, shape the dough as a round ball. Place in the fridge overnight.

Next day, freeze the dough for 30 minutes in the banetton, to make it easier to score later. Invert the dough on a paper liner, add the heart shape in the center, and flour the region around it (I used Thai rice flour). Lift the heart shape, place the larger parchment as a mask to cover the rest of the dough. Add your stencil, making sure it is tight on the surface. Rub Red Yeast powder over the design, lift the stencil carefully. Score the perimeter of the heart and the outer area of the dough, and place in a Dutch oven.

Close the pan and bake at 450F for 7 minutes. Remove the lid, go back and re-inforce the cut around the heart, although this step is optional. Close the pan and bake for 30 minutes, open and allow the bread to brown for a further 15 minutes.

Cool completely over a rack before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This was a lot of fun to make, although I could have done a better job keeping the stencil tighter to the surface for a sharper edge around the little hearts. Here is the full process…

First, get the parchment paper cut and the stencil ready.

Now start by placing the heart on the top of the loaf, fresh from its little rest in the freezer… Rub flour all around.

Lift the stencil, revealing the heart underneath with no white flour on it…

Place the parchment paper as a mask hiding the areas outside the heart, the stencil on top of it…

Rub the red powder over the design…

Gently lift the stencil, score the dough and you are ready to bake!

I close this post with a baking memory from 2023 (click here for full details)

ONE YEAR AGO: Yogurt and Pistachio Sourdough

TWO YEARS AGO: Chinese-Style Orange Chicken goes Light

THREE YEARS AGO: Roasted Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Quinoa

FOUR YEARS AGO: A Savory Phyllo Pie

FIVE YEARS AGO: Nut-Free Lady Grey Macarons

SIX YEARS AGO: Mini-Heart Cakes for your Valentine

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Blue Moon Milk

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Slow-Cooked Chicken Meatballs

NINE YEARS AGO: Zesty Flourless Chocolate Cake

TEN YEARS AGO: Maple Pumpkin Pecan Snacking Cake

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Sweet Fifteen!

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Sesame and Flaxseed Sourdough

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Green Beans with Miso and Almonds

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Saturday Morning Scones

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO: White Bread

3Feb2026

HEART-SHAPED FONDANT POTATOES

Posted in Side dishes, Vegetarian-friendly, Veggies by sallybr

Valentine’s Day is coming up, so if you are cooking at home, this would be a perfect side dish… A little bit tricky to get the timing of everything right the first time, but we absolutely loved this recipe.

HEART-SHAPED FONDANT POTATOES
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

Medium-large Yukon Gold Potatoes
1 quart warm water
4 tsp salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
1 to 2 cups chicken broth
sprigs of rosemary and thyme

1 heart shaped cookie cutter, preferably metal

Cut the potatoes in slices as thick as your cookie cutter. Use the cookie cutter to get heart shapes, as many as you want and will fit an oven-safe skillet in one single layer. Place the slices of potato in a bowl with the warm water and salt for 2 to 6 hours.

Remove the potatoes from the brine, dry them well. Heat the olive oil in a skillet, when really hot, add the slices of potato and let the first side brown well. Season with a little pepper, you might want to skip the salt due to the brining. Brown the first side for about 4 minutes. Flip the slices over, add the butter, once it melts, remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the chicken stock, to about half the height of the potatoes. Add the rosemary and thyme.

Cover the pan and transfer to a 400F oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the sprigs of herbs, and spoon some of the cooking liquid over the potatoes. Serve immediately.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Fondant potatoes are a classic, but as you might imagine, I had to reduce a little bit the amount of butter. It did not compromise the taste, they were melt-in-your-mouth tender and super flavorful. In the classic version, cubes of potatoes much larger are used, and the cooking time is longer. It is al little tricky to make it work with thinner slices, but worth the trouble. Leftovers, in case you are wondering were spectacular still two days later. We enjoyed them with beef tenderloin and asparagus. Ate like Royalty. Not surprising, since a Prince lives with us…